York has been given “fair” rating by the Commission, but the council's prospects for improvement have been labelled “uncertain. The council was praised for waste minimisation and awareness activities, but was told to improve its target setting and service planning.
However, the Audit Commission has said that not enough progress has been made by the council on these issues. A new report from the Commission said last week: “Progress has been generally very slow against the recommendations made in a previous best value inspection report on street environment services and a number have not been implemented.”
York's target setting was described by the Commission as “weak” and inspectors warned that “forward planning is a weakness in the services and action plans to deliver the local York waste strategy do not exist.”
Inspectors said that there was a lack of evidence that service improvement was a key driver for the council's services.
On the positive side, the Commission said the council's 'York Pride' recycling campaign was having a “positive impact” on residents and said waste minimisation work in York was going well. The report said: “Waste minimisation activity is having an impact and the quantity of waste collected has reduced. National targets for recycling have been achieved ahead of schedule.”
York residents produce about 100,000 tonnes of rubbish each year, a figure that has been growing about 3% each year. The council recycled about 12% of its household waste in 2002/03 – meeting its 2003/04 target a year early – and now has to reach a target rate of 18% by 2005/06.
The council has developed a joint Waste Strategy with North Yorkshire county council and the district councils within North Yorkshire, which will deal with the area's rubbish for the next 20 to 25 years. The council said it is currently developing an action plan on how the Waste Strategy will be implemented.
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